How to Build a Perception of Greatness

It's hard to bottle the buzz about a hot college. But these five suggestions can help.

Yana Paskova for The Chronicle

Sometimes an institution lucks out with its location. "I think one of the reasons that NYU took off was because New York became a very hot city," says one higher-education expert.

By Scott Carlson

Everyone can name the big, nationally known universities that
have raised their profiles dramatically over the past couple of
decades: Boston University, Drexel University, New York University,
Northeastern University, and the University of Southern California,
to name a few. Others might know smaller institutions that have
either honed great reputations in their markets or are on the
rise—places like Ball State University, Portland State University,
Texas Christian University, the